by Jayne Blue
The bell rang, they would have two five-minute periods, if the judges decided there needed to be a third, they would have a third. Craddock aimed to finish Mitchell fast. It was not Johnson Mitchell’s fault that Craddock planned to demonstrate his worth to Meyer Thompson on his face. He was just the first man up. Craddock knew that C21’s moneyman wanted violence, intensity and aggression, so Craddock was going to give it to him.
Mitchell was afraid from the start but he tried. He shot in on Craddock’s legs and tried to pin him up against the chain link of the cage. Craddock easily slid around and out and bounced back to the center of the ring. Mitchell’s second strike was a half-assed jab. It missed the mark.
Craddock let Mitchell try one more time, mainly because this would be the last few minutes on television for Johnson Mitchell. Craddock knew this. The fighter tried to land a round house kick somewhere in Craddock’s general vicinity but the thing people missed about Craddock was his speed. He deflected so quickly and punched so hard when Mitchell was off balance from his kick that the blow to his eyebrow cut it open. Blood was now spilling.
Mitchell Johnson hesitated, momentarily stunned by his blood and the punch. Craddock used that half second and wound up for a powerful left hook to the jaw of his opponent. Mitchell staggered back and Craddock surged forward.
No mercy, you put a fighter away when you could, classic Whitey advice. So, Craddock landed a few more bloody body and face strikes on the unlucky Johnson Mitchell. It was another half second before the ref realized Mitchell could no longer defend himself because he was dazed and confused. The ref blew his whistle and Craddock stepped back.
He made his way to his corner. Tracy Keller, the producer, was there with Brian Wozniak and Julie Walters. There were other crews that filmed the fights these three were there now in his corner, because they appeared to like him for some reason. They were at least rooting for him.
“You’re not even sweating.” Brian noticed.
Craddock shrugged it off.
“He was ranked, undefeated, and you made him look like a kid.” Tracy was rattling off things Craddock already knew. Julie had not said anything.
“What’d you think of that doll?” He asked her.
“You’re scary as hell Flynn.” She looked up at him. It was the first time she did not have the baseball cap on and damn if he did not notice; her hair was so much like Cassidy’s. Dark, silky, fuckin-A, could he not think about Cassidy even in these seconds after his victory? He walked to the center.
“The winner by knock-out! Craddock Flynn!” His cheering section of three went wild. Julie’s smile was nice he decided. He also noticed Meyer Thompson, not cheering, but looking at a stopwatch with a small smile on his face as well. Craddock had knocked out his first opponent in ninety-seconds.
Take that shit Tough to the Top.
After day one Gustavo, Teagan, shockingly Brice Price and Craddock made it through. So did Tobin Krupp, Derek Moorehouse, Rain Gomez, and a guy named Donte Borgia. Craddock pretty much knew their records and the only surprise was Brice. Tobin Krupp was next up for Craddock. He was not worried, it was going to plan, but the field had been sliced in half in a day. Luckily two of the fighters knocked out of the competition were also some of his roommates. Soon enough Brice would be out and he would have a single.
Chapter Five
Cassidy
As the weeks went by it got a little easier to watch Tough to the Top. Cassidy began to root for Craddock as if he was some character on a show and not someone to whom she had bared her body and soul. When thoughts like that entered her mind, she had methods to deal with it.
She poured herself into helping Dr. Showers, though he insisted he call him Paul. She had done everything he asked on Thursdays and even sometimes, though it was not part of her internship, she went into the office on Friday mornings. He told her he appreciated it and he was feverishly working himself to figure out a way to secure funding after this year.
She volunteered in the health department clinic with him to make sure kids’ immunization records were up to speed. She filed paperwork, whatever they needed. In some ways, it was similar to her paid work at GWG. You got the right papers in the right places so the people could do what they needed to do.
A few weeks into Tough to the Top and they watched Brice Price succumb to a money temptation and be kicked off the show for agreeing to throw a fight. That got him immediately kicked out and his intended opponent that week, Rain Gomez advanced. The fighters in the GWG said it could be an advantage for Gomez because he would have to recover from one less fight.
They watched Teagan Burrows get drunk, tie one on then barely make it through his fight that week, against a guy named Derek Morehouse. But he did win.
“Teagan Burrows is not going to win it all so he may as well have a drink. He ain’t getting passed Craddock.” Flannigan and Darius Brown enjoyed giving her their play-by-play commentary on the program. Sometimes it was helpful and sometimes it was annoying as hell.
They watched as Gustavo LaRocha and Craddock remained focused. Neither drank, gambled, or even really bonded with the other fighters.
Everyone watching at home was tweeting about #MachoGustavo, and the hashtag that she hated, #iwantflynnin. Flannigan showed her how women were all tweeting with pictures of him looking sweaty and gorgeous. She knew what they meant with the tweets and tried not to be jealous. He was not hers.
She had had enough of the Craddock show after that Friday’s episode and she was glad that Zeke was going to meet her after her required viewing for a pizza.
The friend zone had been the perfect thing for her, he had been there to hear about her internship adventures and she was thrilled to hear that his latest concussion appointment with the doctor went great. He was finally allowed to drive, so he was insisting on chauffeuring her around.
The great part about their easy rapport was that neither one cared to talk about Tough to the Top even though that was the only thing everyone else in the GWG could focus on.
She was about to leave after the broadcast and Sawyer, who was staying Grand City the length of the show’s run called her over. He wanted to fill her in on the big fight he was arranging. Sawyer had become a fixture at the gym, keeping corporate interests in mind, and answering her computer questions when needed.
“Well thanks to our superstar Craddock I’ve got confirmation on our sanctioned 21C fight for Randy Rawson it’s going to be Cary Latanza.”
“Oh, Cary Latanza? I love his work.”
“Okay sassy, Latanza is a 21C champion at middle weight. If our Rawson beats him he’s sure to get a pro deal.”
“Another feather in your cap!” Cassidy pondered again at the enthusiastic biker. His delight over the success of the gym was contagious she had to admit.
“And since you helped arrange that fight in the convention center here a few months ago I’m going to need your help for details on this one, got it?”
“Yes boss.”
“Plus to make Whitey happy I’ll even arrange a few good undercards with Flannigan and maybe Jessie.”
“He’ll love you forever. So, I will start on the event Monday? Tomorrow? Whenever you say.”
“Good girl, now get out of here, is that Zeke Powell out there waiting to pick you up?”
“We’re getting a pizza. He’s off concussion protocol so we’re celebrating.”
“You always have these boys wrapped around your fingers.” Sawyer smiled and shook his head.
“I do not.”
“Whatever you say, kiddo. Have fun with Zeke.”
“Good night.” She was not going to be teased again, especially anywhere near Petey, the beak-nosed producer. She saw him straining to hear what Sawyer was saying to her. She felt like he was just digging for dirt on her or Craddock all the time. She would not give it to him.
She bounded through the doors. Zeke had gotten out and opened her car door.
“It's so funny to be the passenger again!”
<
br /> Zeke gave her a dramatic bow.
“M'lady!”
With that, he got into his side of the car.
They enjoyed pizza and she even had a beer as they celebrated his regained freedoms.
“I’m now back on track.”
“You still have 21C on the radar?”
“You bet I do.”
“I’m going to be a champion. This was just a detour.” He tapped his knuckle on the top of his head. They talked about her goals, her fear that her program would not be funded and a dozen other things that had nothing to do with Tough to the Top.
Afterward their nice pizza dinner Zeke proposed a second stop.
“I want to show you something.”
“What’s that?”
“My favorite window in Grand City, we’ve both had such a good week, you at work and me with brain healing, I just want to end it with something special.”
“I’m game.” Cassidy leaned over to Zeke’s side of the car and put her head on his shoulder. If felt natural and right and not charged with anything. They had been leaning on each other the last few weeks and her head fit perfectly on his broad shoulder.
They drove on the expressway and at the first exit that marked the suburbs of Grand City, a huge white building stood in a field with a cross larger than one she had ever seen. It looked like a monument more than a church.
“Is that Lifeways?”
“Yep, Lifeways Church, founded by my dad in a high school gymnasium and grown over the last 25 years to the biggest congregations in Michigan. Plus a cable tv show.”
“Is that your favorite place?”
“It’s an okay place but no. I will show you my favorite place. It’s just beyond the big white cross. We’ve got about 10 acres of woods here, and my favorite place is back in the woods.” She raised an eyebrow at him.
They followed a small drive into the woods. The car’s headlights illuminated a stand of trees and up at the top there was an amazing tree house.
“What the heck?”
“Yep, it’s my place of quiet reflection, and other stuff.” He was joking with her she knew.
“Quiet reflection or hell raising?”
“More that second thing.”
“Okay, Preacher’s Son, are we going up there?”
“Only if you want to see it.”
“I do.”
Zeke took her hand and led her through the dark and up to the ladder.
“I’m going up, you follow.”
They climbed a surprising amount of ladder type steps mounted to a huge tree and Zeke, in first, guided her through a hole in the floor. When she emerged, he kept an arm around her.
“Let me hold on to you until I get the lantern going. Don’t want you to fall!”
“Okay, yeah, it’s sort of creepy up here so far!” She was at ease however, she trusted Zeke.
Zeke lit a lantern and then another and creepy turned in to dreamy. The tree house was huge, beautiful and had a large open space that you could see the acreage and then the gleaming white cross in the distance.
“Pretty spectacular view, Zeke Powell.”
“I agree.” He was looking at her now and all the easy friend rapport was receding. It was being replaced with anticipation of something about to happen.
Zeke stepped forward and put his hands on both sides of her face. She was chilled and his fingers were warm. This was not a friend zone touch.
He tilted her head up and leaned in. There was no doubt in her mind that a kiss was next.
Cassidy was nervous. What if she didn’t like it? What if she thought of...?
Zeke’s lips were on hers. They were warm, soft, and waiting to be sure. She leaned in to him and he kissed her again, his hands roamed down her back, to land on her hips. He slowly circled his tongue around hers and she felt her insides begin to warm up.
Zeke moved his lips to her jaw and down her neck. She felt a moan escape her lips and he slowly slid her jacket off.
“I just want to feel you Cassidy, be near you, I can’t stand not touching all of you for one more minute.” His words fired up her blood another degree. It felt so good being touched this way. She did not know where they were going but she knew she wanted to be close to Zeke, too. His lips moved down to the top of her breasts, he hesitated again.
She decided she needed this and stepped back a step. She unbuttoned the first button of her blouse and had intended to do more but it was the lynch pin in whatever wall was holding Zeke back. The site of her turned it into something hotter.
Zeke buried his face in her chest and tore through the rest of her blouse, leaving her in only her bra.
“I have to see you please, let me see all of you.” Zeke pleaded and she could not say no. There was something intoxicating about how much she pleased him, just standing there. Just letting him touch what he wanted, and kiss what he wanted.
“Undress me Zeke.”
“Come here.” She stepped forward. He guided her to an old couch in the corner of the massive treehouse. She stood there as he dropped to his knees and undid the button of her jeans. She wriggled her hips to be free of them.
“Oh God, I’ve imagined you like this so many times.”
When she was free of everything but her white cotton bra and panties Zeke lay her down on the couch, careful that he gently placed her there. The Preacher’s Son was almost reverent in his devotion to her body.
“You too, Zeke.”
He removed his shirt. She marveled at how beautiful his body really was, ripped like the other fighters, but something about his face, it was angelic for sure.
Although angels were not on her mind. Zeke crawled on top of her and there was a shifting of legs and knees while they both settled into the sagging old furniture. They both giggled as they adjusted to each other’s bodies and this new intimacy between friends. As the hardness barely contained in his boxer shorts pressed against her, the giggling stopped and intensity fired up again.
“If you want me to stop you need to say so, soon.” Zeke murmured in her ear.
“I don’t want you to stop. I want you to make love to me Zeke.”
“Thank you, I want you so bad Cass.”
He stopped talking and rained kisses on her shoulder, as he did he used his teeth to lower her bra strap. He did the same to the other side; she was barely held in by the half cups. Zeke levered up and looked at her, hungry, but holding back.
“You won’t break me.”
“I feel like I might.” He raked his fingers over the cups, over her nipples and pulled the bra down. He devoured her nipples, licking, twisting, gathering her flesh, and slowly grinding against her so that a pressure was building between her legs. She began to writhe against him to get friction... to get more.
“I can’t hold back,” he said to her.
“Me neither, I’m on the pill, don’t worry.”
“Okay, trust me I’m as clean as a whistle.” She did trust him. She always had.
She felt him slide her panties off and they were naked, exposed and poised to move past the friend zone in a way that would change things forever. She tried not to think about what that would mean and let sensations take over logic.
Zeke ran his hands up and down her body, he made love to her breasts like he’d been starving for them, and finally when neither of them could stand it any longer she wrapped her legs around him and arched her back. She gave him the perfect entrance and no reason to hold back any longer.
He was tentative at first, she felt him test, tease her a little, but she was beyond that now. As he tried to take things slow, she arched again and pushed herself down on him. He moaned and she ground her hips into his and took him to the base.
“Jesus. God.” She did not think he was praying. The tentative Zeke was gone. He began to pulse into her with a near frenzy. The treehouse creaked around them as the couch rocked along with them. Zeke leaned up and then grabbed her knees, one at a time and put them up, almost to her shoulders. She groaned
at how deep this made things, how almost raw it felt. She felt her inner walls clench, she was coming.
“Oh, Zeke I can’t stop it. I’m going over.” She felt a rolling climax and release as she lost herself in the moment. His pace quickened and he too surrendered to the pleasure they had denied themselves for so long.
“Yes, yes, yes.” His moves became less measured. She knew his frenzy as he was reaching a climax. He dug his fingers into her shoulders as she tried to keep up with the motion. Zeke’s passion was surprisingly intense.
With a final thrust, she shuddered with him as he collapsed on top of her. They moved slowly together a few more strokes as they both tried to quiet their intake of breath and come down from their mutual high. Zeke kissed her chest, her jaw, her earlobe.
“Thank you, God,” he said.
“Thank you, Zeke,” she replied, and they lay like that for while in the treehouse. Cassidy only thought she would cry once in the night, in Zeke’s arms, when she thought of a door that had just closed. She wiped it away. Zeke had just showed her his favorite window and it was beautiful.
Craddock
After the first night, there were really only seven men in his way. Brice Price had made it through the meat grinder of the first day, only to be annihilated by his own bullshit the next week.
Price had also made an ass of himself drinking the free beer in Tough House. He was sluggish as hell. Craddock did not understand people like that. He knew plenty about who would rather go to work feeling like shit than say no to a beer, but he still did not get it.
Craddock was glad Teagan had made it through but he was not going to miss Price. His motor mouth was getting on everyone’s nerves. Meyer Thompson knew what he was doing. He was the one who set up the bracket; he knew who he wanted fighting when, so he put Gustavo and Craddock on the opposite sides. He knew Meyer wanted them to be in the finals. From what Craddock could see, Gustavo wanted it, too. Almost as bad as he did.
Craddock’s second fight was a wrestling match for the most part. Tobin Krupp took him down and Craddock had more than one moment of panic that he could not get out. He kept it together; he worked the problem and got Krupp into a wicked rear naked chokehold that forced him to tap out. Unfortunately, Craddock’s face also raked across the chain link and his old cut above his eye in his brow blew open. He won by submission but his blood was everywhere he noticed after they held up his hand in victory.
